Beyond Compliance: In Conversation
What does everyday life during war and armed conflict look like? How do ordinary people engage with armed actors? And how can the law contribute to protecting civilians? Join Katharine Fortin and Florian Weigand in their discussions with leading academics, researchers, and practitioners working and conducting research in this area, shedding light on armed groups, civilian protection, and international law.
Beyond Compliance: In Conversation
S2 EP 6: Drones & the Future of War
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How are drones changing the way wars are fought? What kinds of harm do they cause for civilians? And is international law able to keep pace with these developments? Engaging with these questions, in this episode of Beyond Compliance: In Conversation, Katharine and Florian speak with Khrystyna Kozak, Researcher at the Center for Civilians in Conflict’s (CIVIC) Ukraine Country Office, and Rebecca Mignot-Mahdavi, Assistant Professor of Law at Sciences Po Law School.
Cited Documents:
Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), From Risk to Resilience: Civilian Protection Readiness in Ukraine, 2026.
Mignot-Mahdavi, Rebecca, Drones and International Law: A Techno-Legal Machinery, Cambridge University Press, 2023.
Mignot-Mahdavi, Rebecca, Surveillance on the Battlefield: Rituals of Sovereignty, Ars Interpretandi: Journal of Legal Hermeneutics, 2023, pp.26.
Mignot-Mahdavi, Rebecca, Drones Programs, the Individualization of War and the Ad Bellum Principle of Proportionality, in Necessity and Proportionality in International Peace and Security Law, Claus Kress & Robert Lawless eds., Oxford University Press, 2020, pp.131-168.
Guest Bios:
Khrystyna Kozak is a Researcher at the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) Ukraine Country Office. She holds a Master of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame with a concentration in International Peace Studies and holds an L.L.M. in Human Rights. Khrystyna has over seven years of experience working with NRC, UNHCR, and WFP, Register of Damages for Ukraine specializing in protecting civilians and accountability in armed conflict.
Rebecca Mignot-Mahdavi is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Sciences Po Law School. Her current research is situated in the fields of international law, international legal theory and digital security law and governance. Her research includes reflections on technolegal modes of governance and their evolution/proliferation in a context where risk-anticipation strategies and technology are in play. She explores these technolegal phenomena beyond rigid disciplinary boundaries. Rebecca is a Principal Investigator for the project AI-NODES (on the normative and distributive effects of AI), as part of the PostGenAI@Paris cluster. She is an Editor for the Legal Theory section of the Leiden Journal of International Law, a co-founder of the ESIL Interest Group on International Law and Technology, and an Associate Researcher at the TMC Asser Institute, University of Amsterdam. Rebecca holds a PhD from the European University Institute and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
The Beyond Compliance Consortium is a co-productive, socio-legal research partnership that traverses the fields of international law, conflict studies, humanitarian protection work and human rights policy, and brings together these communities of scholarship and practice with people with lived experience of conflict. It is funded by UK International Development. The second season is funded by UK International Development, while the first season was funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Katharine Fortin is an Associate Professor in human rights law and international humanitarian law at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Utrecht University.
Florian Weigand is the Co-Director of the Centre on Armed Groups.
